Mix Up
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: Stupid mistakes happen, and you can't blame a guy for that.


I woke up, and found myself in my bed at Wayne Manor. My head hurt, and I didn't really remember the night before. There was training…I remembered that much, and I remembered being exhausted, but that was about it. I was sure I had Dick to thank for the massive headache I was suffering from. I grabbed one of the bottles of pain killers out of my dresser, and then downed two pills without even looking at them. I placed the bottle on top of the dresser, and then started rummaging for clothes. I got dressed, and walked out of the room. I headed toward the kitchen, and heard this muttering sound. It sounded like muffled voices, but I couldn't decipher anything more than that. I was too tired to even attempt to figure out whom the voices belonged to, and I wasn't in the mood to hang on the steps to try to find out either. I walked into the kitchen, and found Dick and Bruce talking. Well, their version of talking anyway.

Dick was leaning up against the counter drinking a cup of coffee, and Bruce was sitting at the table with the newspaper and a cup of his own in hand. They both turned their attention to me when I walked in. They gave me the normal morning greetings, but then they gave each other a strange look that I couldn't quite place. I could tell they were having a private conversation that I wasn't privy to. I hated it when they did that. It made me feel like they'd forgotten that I'm a bat too. I knew something was going on that I was being left out of. I just wished I was better at reading their non-verbal cues. It was times like that I would wish I was a mind reader, but I'm pretty sure, even if I was, it wouldn't have helped in this family. We have training protocols for everything, including but not limited to mind control, mind reading, alien parasites, and my personal favorite evil talking food products.

I must have not said anything for too long, or something, because the two of them stopped both the light conversation with me and the unspoken conversation going on between them, and stared at me blankly. Given my headache, and my lack of being fully awake I didn't feel like getting into anything at that particular moment, and as much fun as having Dick talk to me like I'm five and call me Timmy is, I wanted to avoid that all as much as possible. So, I simply said I was tired, and zoned out. I grabbed a cup of coffee, and headed out of the room as fast as possible. I knew that Bruce was probably going to send Alfred up to check on me after that, but I had a plan for that too.

I wasn't even in the room for five minutes before I heard the knock at the door. I thought about all the possible ways that conversation could have gone. I thought about simply not having the conversation, but that might have gone somewhere I knew I didn't want to. I told the person to come in, and sat down on the bed. Sure enough good old Alfred walked in holding a tray. He placed it on the desk by the door, and turned to me. I yawned, and told him thanks for whatever he had brought me. I joked about my severe lack of sleep lately, hoping to pass everything off as sleep deprivation, and he gave me his best 'I'm not sure if I believe you, but I'll leave it there' stare, and left.

I wasn't sure if it was so much that I didn't feel like staying around the manor, or I didn't want to hang around the people in the manor, but something was just telling me to leave. I think it was the fact that, for some reason, I was in an odd mood, and I didn't want to take it out on them. That or it was the fact that Bruce and Dick not only sent Alfred to do their dirty work, but they also clearly didn't want me around. Okay, so maybe that was my interpretation, but I thought it would be easier to just not be around them than to try to avoid everyone. It's a big place, but being a bat, I knew that when you didn't want to be around people the most, that's when suddenly everyone you know gets clingy. I grabbed my black leather jacket, and made sure I brought the pain killers off the dresser with me. My headache hadn't subsided in the least, and I wasn't sure how long I would be gone. I double checked to make sure I had everything, and then headed to the garage.

I had high hopes of not running into anyone on my way. I knew that Alfred would be in the kitchen, and that Bruce would be in his study. I didn't think anyone would be in the garage, but leave it to Dick to prove me wrong. He was on his cell phone when I walked in, so I thought I could just grab my bike and go, but nothing is ever that simple. The moment Dick saw me he stopped talking mid sentence, and told the person he'd been talking to that he had to go. I couldn't help but be a little irked about that, and when he smiled at me, I had to shut my eyes to keep from rolling them. I returned the smile…barely, and continued on my way to my bike. He asked me where I was going, and I'm not sure if I would have given him an answer had I had one. I shrugged, placed the helmet on my head, told him I would see him later, and left.

I didn't know where I was going, or what I was doing. I was angry, and didn't even know why. I knew that for some reason that whole conversation in the kitchen annoyed me, the one going on between the two of them that is. It bothered me that they didn't seem to care if I knew that something was going on as long as I didn't know what. They could have at least had the decency to wait until I was out of the kitchen. It wasn't like I cared if I was completely left out of something. I was used to it, especially with the two of them around. I guess I was just irritated because it felt like they had given me a puzzle, and told me I wasn't allowed to try it. It felt like I was just supposed to stare at it, and pretend I didn't see that there was something more to it…something more to the situation.

I drove around for hours aimlessly. I stopped once to get something to eat, downed a few more pills without paying attention to help the never ending headache, and then just continued to drive. I didn't have anywhere to be, and I didn't feel like hanging around any one place in particular, so I just drove. I took random alley ways, and made sharp turns for the heck of it. I sped down certain streets just because I knew I could. It wasn't something I would normally do, and I think that's why I enjoyed it so much.

I returned to the manor sometime after dark. Dick had already returned home to his own city, and Nightwing was probably out protecting it by that time. I went down to the cave, and as I had expected Batman had already left. He left me a note that basically told me to get my butt out on patrol, but not in so many words--words were my thing, not Batman's. I changed, and was out on the rooftops for some time before Oracle contacted me.

It had been a slow night for me, which just irked me even more. I had some serious frustration I wanted to get out, and of course there was nothing for me to do. I wasn't sure if the headache had gone or if I was just ignoring the pain better, but at least that was one thing I didn't have to worry about. I was about to call it a night when she asked if I could go help out Nightwing. Nightwing rarely needed help, and when he did I usually wasn't the first person on his call list given there were others closer, faster, or generally better than me…mainly the last one. I would have argued that point too, but that wouldn't have been "doing what you're told, Robin," which is who I am. Dick was the first and the best Robin, Jason was the "street smart Robin," and I'm simply the "do what I'm told Robin." I asked the normal, "Where is he and what's up?" questions as I started moving across the rooftops. I didn't get much information for my trouble; not that I was surprised by that fact, or anything. All I knew was his approximate location, and the fact that he requested my help. I came to the conclusion it obviously wasn't that serious, or he would have called someone else…as usual.

It took a few rooftops, two busses, a train, (hanging onto the outside of one of those is harder than one might think) and more rooftops to find Nightwing, and when I did he was in an alley way fighting a group of three men. I crouched down near the edge of the rooftop, and watched. I knew Nightwing would have no trouble taking them down. I also knew that if I had jumped down there it would have caused more harm than good. I waited until he had finished with the men, and made sure there weren't any others I hadn't noticed before I jumped down to the ground.

Nightwing turned and smiled at me. "Hey, what took you so long?"

I was glad I had my mask on, because that time I did roll my eyes at his obnoxious grin. Again, maybe it was just my mood at the time, but everything just aggravated me, especially his stupid smile. If you asked me there was nothing to smile about, but that was highly beside the point. "I decided whatever it was, it couldn't have been that important, so I stopped for a slice of pizza." I didn't mean to make my voice so emotionless, but it worked.

His jaw dropped slightly. "Are you serious?"

I groaned, and knew at that moment it was going to be a long night. "Oh, of course, it's not like you need me anyway. You never do." I wasn't in a good mood, and I was certain it came through with that sentence.

I heard footsteps behind me, and spun around before Nightwing could even get out his exasperated sigh at my statement. There were two guys standing there. The one closest to me was holding a knife, and the other was standing a few feet away from him with a lead pipe in hand. I threw a birdarang at the old scruffy one holding the lead pipe while the one holding the knife rambled on and on. I saw no reason to take out knife guy first; he certainly wasn't that big of a threat. I watched as the birdarang hit the guy with the pipe in the side of the head. He landed unconscious on the ground with a loud thud, and I couldn't help but wonder why I was even there. Clearly Nightwing could have handled that kind of situation in any circumstance. He didn't need me, and it infuriated me even further that I was there at all. True I did get a little bit of action with the two guys in front of me, but I could have just gone back to the cave and had some nice quality time with the gym equipment. I was torn from my thoughts when the short heavy one with the knife lunged at me; clearly he had no skill with a knife. I simply slid to the side and let him trip over my foot. He stumbled, lost his knife, but didn't fall. He turned, and charged at me again. By that time I had already been overly annoyed with the fool, so I grabbed his head and slammed it into the nearby wall. He slumped down to the ground out cold, and I turned back to Nightwing.

He simply stared as I silently walked passed him. I took a few long strides before I realized I couldn't hear Nightwing's footsteps behind me. I swiftly turned to see him standing there staring at me. I was growing increasingly more livid by the minute, and suddenly that damn headache was back in full force. "I assume there is a reason you wanted me here. Might I suggest we move on, and you can explain to me what that reason is?" I took out my grapple gun and shot off a line before he could say anything. I wasn't sure if the conversation was going to lead to a fight or not, but if it was, I wanted it to take place on the rooftops.

I walked to the middle of the roof, and waited for Nightwing to follow. I hadn't given him that much of a choice. He had to either follow me, or watch me leave. I had every intention of going back to the cave, and taking out all of my frustrations on a certain punching bag when he finally decided to get his butt up there. Without turning I spoke to him. "Why am I here?" My voice was cold again. I didn't mean for it to be, but it was the only way I could react without letting all of my anger out on him.

Nightwing turned toward me, and stared for a moment. When he spoke his voice was low. "You've been acting a lot like the Bat lately. We're worried about you."

I suppressed another groan, and didn't say anything. I wasn't in the mood for this conversation once again. It seemed like every couple of weeks for the last three months he would drag me out, and express his concerns and fears of me becoming too much like Bruce. If you asked me it wasn't that big of a deal. Sure the guy had some major problems expressing himself, and enough screwed up relationships for ten people, but all in all he was a great guy, an even better detective, a great fighter, and we all knew how he felt whether he could come out and say it or not. I didn't think being like him was such a bad thing.

Nightwing stepped closer, and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I care about you, you know that."

I could feel my teeth grinding together as I tore my shoulder from his grasp. "I'm fine, and if you don't have a real reason for me to be here, I should just go back to Gotham." I turned to go, but I heard him call my name. I'm not really sure why that stopped me, but I guessed I owed it to the guy to at least listen to him.

"Tim, it's late, why don't you finish patrol with me, and then spend the night on my couch. It beats trying to get back to Gotham before all the early commuters." I was surprised that he had just dropped it liked that…glad, but still surprised, and I had to admit that I did not like the idea of hanging on the outside of another train for that evening.

We finished the patrol in silence, and went back to his place. I had no intention of staying the entire night. My plan was to shower, change, and head back to Gotham. Unfortunately, Dick took his shower first, and I must have been far more tired than I had thought, because the moment I sat down on the couch, and laid my head back I was out. I hadn't even taken off my boots or anything. The most I got off was my mask.

I woke up a few hours later. I very rarely ever slept for more than a few hours at a time. Dick had been kind enough to take off everything besides my tunic, and lay a cover over me. I got up, folded it, and left it on the couch. I wanted to take a shower, but I didn't want to be there when Dick awoke. I knew he would attempt to continue our conversation from the previous night, and I wasn't willing to go there. I had my reasons for doing what I did, and there was no reason for Dick to lecture me. I finished changing, and left before he even noticed.

When I got to the manor, Bruce had already gone, and Alfred was no where in sight. I silently made my way upstairs, and had my hand on the doorknob to my room when I heard Alfred distinctly clearing his throat, which meant he knew I had been trying to avoid him, and I was caught. I couldn't help but think how close I had been to freedom as I turned to face him.

He just stood there staring at me, and for once I didn't have a plan. My head was reeling, and my stomach was hurting now too…probably because I had been caught. I had no idea what to say. Luckily for me Alfred took the opportunity away from me. "Master Dick called. He said you left his home without telling him."

Alfred continued to stare, and I knew he wanted an explanation. Well, it was a good thing for me I could think fast. I started coughing, and I threw in a nice sneeze and a sniffle for good measure. "Sorry if I worried anyone. I just wasn't feeling well, and I didn't want to get Dick sick. I didn't think he needed that on top of everything else that he has going on in his life at the moment. I'll go call him, and apologize." I finished with another good coughing fit, and some light sneezing. Fooling Alfred is hard, and takes talent, but it can be done-- that was one thing I knew for certain. Plus since I had yet to have the chance to actually shower and remove the grime, dirt, and sweat from the previous night, I looked horrible, and I knew that could only work in my favor.

Alfred gave me the stern 'go back to bed' stare, as I started walking away from my door. "You will do no such thing. Go lie down. I will inform Master Dick that you have arrived home alright, and of your illness. Then I will be in to check on you."

I nodded, gave another sniffle, and thanked him. I waited until he had started down the stairs, and then I returned to my room. The first thing I did after taking a few pills was tear off my clothes, and take a much needed shower. When I finished and entered my bedroom, I found a tray with a bowl of soup on it on top of the desk. I smiled to myself, and thought about how Alfred was always on top of everything. I ate as much of the soup as I could before I started feeling extremely exhausted again. I couldn't understand why I was so tired all of a sudden. I had been getting my usual amount of sleep. I had no reason to be anymore drained than I normally was, and yet I found myself barely being able to keep my eyes open. I didn't want to give in to sleep, simply out of principle, but there was nothing I could do-- I was slowly losing a battle I shouldn't have even tried to fight. Before I knew it I was out cold again.

I awoke to someone shaking me, and I was not happy about it in the least. I was lying on my stomach with my face buried in the pillow, attempting to shoo the person away with my left arm while pulling the covers up over me with my right, but the person was being far more persistent than Alfred ever was. The next thing I knew the covers had been torn from me, and I turned over to find Dick grinning at me and holding the cover in one hand. I grabbed my pillow, and threw it at his head. Then I turned back over a little too quickly for my throbbing head, and pressed my face down into the mattress. The room seemed awfully bright, I was in excruciating pain from the headache, and the last thing I wanted to see was his cocky grin, and I had no problem telling him such.

Dick hit me with the pillow on my back as hard as he could, but I didn't care if it meant I got to return to sleep. At least that was until he spoke. "Come on Timmy, you've been asleep for two days straight."

I flipped over, and ignored the fact that my vision swam just slightly, and then glared at him. "It's not funny to lie to a drowsy guy with a headache."

Dick just stared at me kind of oddly. "Tim, I'm not lying. You've been asleep for two days. Alfred has been in to check on you almost every hour. He even asked Leslie to come by yesterday. She took blood, and everything. The entire time you merely groaned, and continued to sleep."

I carefully rolled over onto my side, and held my head. "What's your point? You ever think Alfred had the right idea…just let me sleep."

He grabbed my shoulder, and shook me vigorously, which made my head feel like it was going to explode, and my stomach wasn't enjoying it either. "Come on Timmy, time to get up. You never sleep this much."

I groaned again. "I'm out of nice light fluffy pillows to throw at you, but I'm sure I can find something large, heavy, and harmful to throw."

Dick shook me once again, and I held my head relatively still just to keep from vomiting. "Come on Tim, you know you want to get up." He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

I slowly turned to face him still holding my head with one hand. "You aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"

He shook his head, and I gradually moved to a standing position. I didn't want to move too fast, I didn't think my head, or my stomach for that matter, could handle it. Dick left, and told me he would be waiting for me downstairs in the cave, apparently we had job related business to talk about. I wasn't thrilled with that prospect. When we have to meet in the cave during day light hours to talk I know to stay on my guard, for the conversation could be about anything. It could be something as simple as a case, or it could be something far more bothersome to talk about…like my performance the previous night. I took my meds, got dressed, and made my way down to meet Dick.

He was doing a headstand when I walked in. My headache had become nothing more than a dull throb, and my stomach had settled quite nicely now that I didn't have anyone shaking me. Dick hadn't acknowledged my presence until I moved next to him and jabbed my index finger into his calf muscle. "What do you want?"

Dick flipped back onto his feet. "I'm worried about you."

I sighed. "Oh, great this conversation again."

Dick folded his arms across his chest. "Yes, this conversation again. We want you to see Leslie. In fact she'll be here soon."

I was tired, annoyed, and not in the mood for this. "Why? I'm fine. Leave me alone."

He ran his hand through his hair. "Tim, you are not fine. I noticed it the other night while we were training. You seemed off somehow, and then when we were on patrol together you acted so un-Tim-like it was kind of scary. Not to mention you've just slept through two days, and had I not forced you to get up; you probably would have slept through a third."

I shrugged with one shoulder as I turned to leave. "I'll live."

"Tim, that's not the point." Dick's voice was low, but strong.

I spun around to face him. "No. You want to know what the point is? The point is a certain someone is overreacting, and I'm supposed give a damn. I'm fine. Drop it."

"If I have to tranquilize you I will." Dick's voice was lethal.

I took a few steps closer--to the point where we were almost nose to nose with each other, unmoving. With no warning, I kicked my leg out, and knocked him on his ass. The look of shock on Dick's face from the fact that I had managed to do so was almost amusing. I turned to leave once again, but he grabbed my leg, and pulled me down to the ground. The two of us were on the ground rolling around, hitting each other, when Alfred walked in with Leslie. Again he cleared his throat, and we both froze. The moment we stopped moving was the moment I noticed my lovely headache had once again returned. The damn thing was like The Joker…it just kept coming back.

Alfred didn't say anything. He just looked from me to Dick, and then turned to leave. Dick silently followed him. Leslie gave me _that_ look, and I knew to just sit in a chair quietly. She didn't say anything until she was sure both of them were gone, and when Leslie did finally speak, her voice was extremely low. "How long have you been taking antidepressants? Don't even give me that look--I did the blood work, and no I didn't tell anyone yet. I wanted to get your side of the story first, possibly smack you upside the head, and then tell them if necessary. You do realize you overdosed, right? I'm actually happy that you've been asleep for the last couple of days, because it means you haven't taken anymore. In which case, had you taken much more you would have probably started experiencing the worst of the side effects, such as seizures, extremely low blood pressure and rapid heart rate, heart blocks, and electromechanical dissociation. I'm not sure how much more you would have needed to become comatose or worse dead. You are extremely lucky, and because you didn't take that much, I didn't have to decontaminate your bowel by using activated charcoal at frequent dosages. Does that sound fun Tim? Because I can put you in contact with plenty of patients who will tell you otherwise. I want to know right now what the hell you were thinking."

The moment she had told me I had overdosed, I couldn't help but slap myself in the head. "Leslie, trust me it's not what you think. Okay…well it's kind of…sort of like you think. I've been on the antidepressants for a little over three months. I didn't want Bruce, Dick or Alfred to know so I scraped off the outer coating of both the antidepressants, and my pain killers that I keep in my dresser. I mixed up a nice little food dye concoction so they would look exactly the same. Then I put the pain killers in one bottle and the antidepressants in an identical bottle. The only exception was the marking on the bottom of the bottle. I was stupid, forgot to look, and took the wrong one. Leslie, I swear it's nothing more than that."

She scrutinized me for a moment trying to decide if my brain really had been in shut-off mode, or if it was just some elaborate lie I had invented. "I don't know, Tim. I mean it explains why there wasn't a massive overdose, but it still seems a little far fetched to me."

Ugh, okay. So I knew it wasn't going to be easy to convince her, but come on! Alfred fell for my whole "I'm sick cough cough sneeze sneeze" routine-- at least this time it was the truth. "Leslie, really, come on, who could make up something like this? Okay…so I could have, but honestly I had a headache, and I had just woken up. You can't blame a guy for that. Stupid mistakes happen…look at Bruce…that guy is the world's best detective, and I bet you anything he didn't even notice anything was wrong until Dick brought it up, and practically shoved the evidence down his throat."

I heard a cough from behind me, and I immediately started to mentally scold myself. I should definitely have known better than to insult the guy in his own cave. I fell silent, and waited for him to make the next move. If he simply glared, and left that meant he had only heard the last part. If he glared, and told Leslie to leave so he could talk to me that meant he had heard enough to be concerned. And the worst case scenario was if he glared, and motioned for me to continue because that meant he had heard everything, and was waiting for all the details to come in before he reacted to anything. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He was already glaring, so I just had to wait for his next move. It seemed like I was sitting there…staring…waiting for a response forever, and then finally he walked over to his chair, sat down, and nodded for me to continue. My heart sunk in my chest, and I just kind of looked to Leslie to take it from there.

My guess was Leslie had caught the exchange as well, because it took her a moment to recover. Finally she asked me the dreaded questions that I had hoped to escape from…the questions I had been avoiding since this entire conversation had begun. "Why are you on the antidepressants? Who did you get them from? Oh, and medically what else are you hiding?"

I hung my head a little lower. "I think it should be obvious why I am on them. I got them from my one of my dad's old friends who is a doctor, and medically I'm not hiding anything else."

There was silence. It was as if even the bats were afraid to make a noise. Finally Bruce got up from his chair, and walked past without a word. He went straight upstairs, and didn't even spare me a glance. Leslie and I continued to stare at the staircase in silence for a few moments after he had gone, and then we just looked at each other and shrugged. A minute or two later we heard someone else come down the cave steps. I couldn't force myself to remove my gaze from the floor, and I could tell Leslie was only watching me. The next thing I knew, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I couldn't help but look up. Dick was standing there, and Alfred was beside him. "So, Bruce said you had something to tell us..."

I dropped my head again. Now that was just cruel.

The End


End file.
